SpyHunter

Midway's action-racer makes a sloppy transition to GCN, but still retains its appeal. Full review.

It's amazing how far the videogame industry has come since its days of infancy. Games have jumped from 2D to 3D and the graphic and audio presentations have seen similar revolutions. The classics -- your Jousts and Dig-Dugs and everything in between -- look downright ancient by comparison to today's technically advanced offerings. But you know, those dusty old titles are still fun to pick up and play, which is a true testament to their design. Perhaps realizing this, Midway has taken a look to the past as inspiration for some of its next-generation products. It has recently unleashed vastly updated sequels to the Gauntlet franchise across multiple platforms and, thank your lucky stars, now comes a 3D remake of the beloved action-racer SpyHunter.

Now is of course relative as PlayStation 2 owners got this same SpyHunter sequel last September. It was originally developed by Paradigm Entertainment, the same group that brought the wacky, but lovable Beetle Adventure Racing to N64 a couple of years back. The GameCube port remains identical in mechanics to its predecessor, featuring 14 missions of fast and furious gun and jump-centric action. It's a lot of fun and indeed some of the mission objectives are downright old school in difficulty, which is very satisfying. What is disappointing, however, is that the GCN port -- obviously rushed -- boasts no graphic or audio improvements, lacks some of the new extra features of the Xbox incarnation, and actually runs with a worse framerate fluidity than its PS2 forefather.

The Facts

14 different worldwide missions, including Venice, England and Key West

The G-6155 Interceptor car, which can morph into a speedboat, a turbo jet watercraft or a super cycle

Photo-realistic graphics and recognizable landmarks

3-D, behind the vehicle perspective

Two remakes of the SpyHunter "Peter Gunn" theme song by Island Gold recording group Saliva

All the old-school weapons including machine guns, smoke screens and oil slicks

New weapons including missiles, flame throwers and classified equipment

The classic Weapons Van, which the player can enter to upgrade weaponry

Two-player mode

Gameplay Damn those elite groups of eccentric rich businessmen. When will they ever learn? This time, the wealthy old coots have banded together to create their own little club, Nostra, which seeks to control the entire planet by knocking out all of the electricity. It's just crazy enough to work... in a videogame. Of course, it's up to players, armed with the G-6155 Interceptor car's unique ability to transform into a speedboat or motorcycle, and overflowing with artillery, to stop the Nostra before it can execute its evil deeds. And so begins the racing adventure.

What all of this really boils down to are 14 missions of vehicular racing and on-the-fly combat -- all skinned over the backbone of the classic SpyHunter design. Each of the 14 missions feature in-level objectives -- several per area and some more difficult than others depending on the particular stage. In the first stage, for example, players must do everything from avoid killing innocent civilians to clearing a 50-meter jump, shooting down a series of targets and successfully navigating a batch of markers. Later levels have gamers hooting down enemy copters, traveling underground to destroy satellites and more. It's possible to advance to the next stage after only completing a handful of the goals, but as levels progress the missed objectives begin to build up and gamers will eventually have to tackle them to gain access to the advanced stages. It's a very well designed setup that enables the novice gamer a sneak-peek at stages to come and simultaneously challenges them to complete the objectives before advancing beyond a set point.

SpyHunter is a lot of fun. The original development studio did a remarkable job of recreating the franchise in 3D. Control is tight, enabling gamers to quickly slide around corners without losing an inch, to navigate jumps and catch big air, or to seamlessly shift into boat or motorcycle form, all while targeting enemies and destroying assigned objects. Players have an unlimited amount of machine gun fire, which comes in handy when taking down enemy after enemy -- and believe us, there are sometimes swarms of foes to worry about while racing. But there is a bit more strategy injected into the gameplay process too as there are other weapons, from EMPs that knock out bombs to a flame-thrower, that can be picked up during the course of the adventure, and all of these extras do have a time and a place. Paradigm has also succeeded in delivering a clear sense of unique control, physics and usability for the different forms of vehicles available. Straight out street driving is very obviously heavier than the motorcycle areas, while the speedboat is more bouncy and offers more drift upon the water.

This all comes together quite triumphantly for an experience that is both very well balanced and equally challenging. From morphing into a speedboat and blasting through water to shooting down motorcycle bandits or engaging with the repair truck -- it just feels like SpyHunter, which is a considerable accomplishment given that the franchise has moved into 3D. The downside is technical -- the fluidity of the game sometimes stutters to a point where it really, truly becomes difficult to navigate precise areas, and that's thoroughly frustrating. But we'll get to that in a moment.